Railway rail



' Dec. 3, 1940. H. 1.. LANSING EIAL RPLILWAY RAIL Filed Jan. 27, 1940 ill Patented Dec. 3, 1940 PATENT OFFICE RAILWAY RAIL.

Horace L. Lansing, Rutherford, N. J., and James G. Delfox, Flushing, N. Y., assignors to Poor &

Company, Delaware New York, N. Y., a, corporation of Application January 27, 1940, SeriaLNo. 316,028

3 Claims.

This invention relates to railway rails, and has for its general object to provide a'rail which possesses longer life and which has a higher moment of inertia or greater vertical stiffness -than a comparable standard T-rail of equal cross sectional area, and according to which Wheel loads come more directly over the web than in such comparable standard T-rail.

According to the invention the gage side of izthe head of the present rail is disposed nearer to a vertical, longitudinal plane passing through the center of the web of the rail, and the joint bar fishings at the under side'of the head of the present rail are higher, than in a standard grail of equal cross sectional area. This means that, as compared with such standard T-rail, of equal cross sectional area,'the present-rail represents, in effect, a redistribution of metal which involves the displacement of metal from the gage side and the under side of the head of the standard T-rail and its transferintoanew head formation at the opposite sidelof the rail head. Further, this change in the metal distribution which places a portion of the shifted metal to the outer side of the head of the present'rail' renders the head of the present railat least as stiff laterally as the head of the comparable standard T-rail, whilethe remaining portion of the useful life of the present rail has become exhausted, as compared with a standard T-rail "-.of equal cross sectional area. Consequently, the

present rail possesses longer life than the comparable, standard T-rail of cross sectional area. At the same time, due to the greater height of its head, the present rail advantageously has a higher moment of inertiav or greater vertical stiffness than said standard T-rail and, due to the gage side of the head of the present rail being disposed nearer to a vertical, longitudinal plane passing through the center of the'web ofthe rail,

fwh'eel loads advantageously come more directly over the Web of the present rail than in the comparable rail. 2

Because of the special distribution of the that, in the absence of base modification of the present rail as compared with the standard rail,

the -neutral or free bending axis of the 'present rail, with reference to deflection of the rail under wheel loads, would disadvantageously and undesirably be at an angle tothe horizontal. Accordingly, another object of the invention is to form the base of the present rail so that, despite the unsymmetrical form of the head thereof and despite the unsymmetrical relationship of the head thereof to the web thereof, the neutral or free bending axis of the rail is advantageously and desirably at, or substantially at, a zero angle to the horizontal or, in other words, is at, or substantially at, right angles to the vertical plane of the web of the rail, which is particularly important in an unsymmetrical shape such as represented by the present rail in order to insure the capacity thereof to withstand severe stresses. With the foregoing and other objects in view, which will become more fully apparent as the nature of the invention is better understood, the same consists'in a rail embodying the novel .distribution of metal and the novel combination and arrangement of features as will be hereinafter more fully described, illustrated in the accompanying drawing and defined in the appended claims.

- In the accompanying drawing, the single figure is an end view of the present rail illustrating, by dotted lines, splice bars engaged therewithand, by dot and dash lines, a comparable A. R. E. A. standard T-rail of equal cross sectional area upon which'the present rail is superimposed. 1

Referring to the drawing in detail, S designates, generally, by way of example, an A. R. E. A. standard T-rail, illustrated by dot and dash lines, and N designates, generally, the present rail of the same, or practically the samacross sectional area as the rail S, illustrated as superimposed upon the latter rail for'comparative purposes.

The present rail comprises, as usual, 2. head- !0, a Web H and a base l2 and the web .II is, or may be the same as the comparable standard rail S. However, whereas the head and the base of the comparable rail are themselves geometrically symmetrical and also symmetrical with reference to the Web of the rail, the head It and the base l2 of the present rail neither are themselves symmetrical nor symmetrical with reference to the Web ll. side 9 of the head of the present rail is disposed nearer a vertical, longitudinal plane a--a passing through the center of the web H than the gage as the present rail; the fishing surfaces at the On the contrary, the gage under side of the head of the present rail extend side of the head of the comparable rail S; the

top of the head of the present rail is higher than the top of the head of the comparable rail S; the base flange at the inner side of the present rail is of a narrower width than the base flange at the inner side of the comparable rail S, and

the base flange at the outer side of the present rail is wider than the base flange of the comparable standard rail S.

The inner or gage side g of the head of the present rail is flat and substantially vertically disposed between the upper and lower, rounded corners of the head, and said inner or gage side of the present rail may be disposed nearer the plane aa than the inner or gage side of the comparable T-rail S by any suitable amount.

Preferably, however, the amount of inward disposition of the inner or gage side of thehead of the present rail as compared with the disposition I of the inner or gage side of the head of the comparable rail, is such that locomotive and car wheels engage the top of the head Ill directly over the web H, as shown, whereby the rail is subjected to little or no lateral forces so far as concerns wheel loads.

An A. R. E. A. standard T-rail in the example thereof shown in the drawing, has, at the under side of its head, relatively wide, flat fishing surfaces with which the heads of splice bars are engageable. Due, however, to the closer disposition of the inner or gage side g of the head of the present rail to the plane a,a than the inner or gage side of the head of said comparable standard rail, the inner, under side of the head of the present rail cannot practically have a wide, flat fishing surface, although it may have a narrow, flat fishing surface if desired. Preferably, however, the inner under side of the head of the present rail has a wide, rounded fishing surface f extending from the lower, inner corner of the head Ill to the web II in order to afford ample bearing area for cooperation with the head of a splice bar.

Moreover, a wide, rounded fishing surface I has numerous advantages, many of which are known, from the standpoint of effectively and efiiciently splicing a rail and supporting the same at its ends.

To enable duplicate splice bars to be used at the inner and the outer sides of the present rail the outer, under side of the head ill of the present rail preferably is formed with a wide, rounded x fishing surface f duplicating the fishing surface f I at the inner, under side of said head. The outer.

under side of the head I!) may, however, be formed in any other suitable manner in case it may be desired to use splice bars at the outer side of the rail different from the splice bars use-d at the inner side of the rail.

The upper, outer portions of the wide, curved fishing surfaces 1 of the present rail are disposed higherthan the fiat fishing surfaces at the under side of the head of the said comparable standard rail and this, in conjunction with the nearer disposition of the inner or gage side a of the head of the present rail to the plane wa. than the corresponding side of the head of the comparable rail, represents, as compared with the latter, removal of metal from the inner and under sides of the head of the standard rail. A portion of the equivalent of this, in effect, removed metal is,

according to the invention, in effect applied to the outer side 0 of the head of the present rail in any suitable amount but preferably in an amount such as to maintain the head of the present rail at least as stiff laterally as the head of the comparable rail. Only a portion of the displaced metal is required to be applied to the outer side of the head of the present rail to accomplish the purpose stated, particularly if the outer side of the head of the present rail is inclined downwardly and inwardly as shown, and as pref erably is done. Therefore, a considerable portion of the redistributed metal remains and this, in accordance with the invention, is, in effect, applied to the top of the head of the present rail, as indicated at t, thereby materially increasing the height of the head of the present rail as compared with the compared rail S. Thus, considerably more, metal must be worn away from the top of the head of the present rail than from the top of the said rail S, before both rails reach a condition of wear wherethey no longer are suitable for use in the track. Consequently, the present rail possesses, materially longer life than the compared rail. Moreover, the metal added, in effect, to the top of the head of the present rail increases the moment of inertia or vertical stiffness of the present rail.

Since the inner or gage side of the head of the present rail is disposed substantially vertically and since the outer side of said head is inclined downwardly and inwardly, said head is not itself symmetrical. Neither is it, symmetrical with respect to the web I I because the width of its outer portion from its outer face to the plane aa is considerably greater than the width of its inner portion from its inner face to said plane. If, therefore, the base of the present rail were the same as the base of the comparable rail S, the

present rail would have, with reference to flexure.

purpose, the outer flange being, of course, wider than the inner flange because of the greater width of the outer than the inner portion of the head I!) with reference to the plane aa. In other words, the inner edge of the inner base flange of the present rail is disposed nearer the plane w-a. than the corresponding edge of the comparable standard T-rail S, as indicated at H and the outer edge of the outer base flange of the present rail is disposed farther from the plane a-a than the corresponding edge of the comparable standard T-rail S, as indicated at l2 From the foregoing it will be apparent that, as compared, for example, with a symmetrical A. R. E. A. standard T-rail of the same, or practically the same, cross sectional area, the present unsymmetrical rail possesses the distinct advantages of longer life, a higher moment of inertia or vertical stiffness, and provision for causing wheel loads to come directly, or substantially directly, over the web, and that, despite the unsymmetrical distribution of the metal of the present rail whereby these advantages are obtained, the rail nevertheless has a zero, or practically zero, free bending axis which is of particular importance in view of the unsymmetrical shape of the rail.

Without further description it is thought that the features and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and it will of course be understood that changes in the form, proportion and minor details of construction may be resorted to, without departing rrom the spirit of the invention and scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A new railway rail comprising a head, a web, and a base, the inner or gage side of the head being disposed nearer a vertical, longitudinal plane passing through the center of the web than the outer side of said head, the said inner and outer sides of said head being respectively disposed nearer to and farther from said plane than the inner and the outer sides of the head of a comparable standard T-rail of practically the same cross sectional area, said new rail having fishing surfaces under its head extending upwardly higher than the corresponding fishing surfaces of said comparable rail, and the head of said new rail being of greater height than that of said comparable rail.

2. A new railway rail comprising a head, a web,

and a base, the inner or gage side of the head being disposed nearer a vertical, longitudinal plane passing through the center of the Web than the outer side of said head, the said inner and outer sides of said head being respectively disposed nearer to and farther from said plane than the inner and the outer sides of the head of a comparable standard T-rail of practically the same cross sectional area, said rail having continuously curved fishing surfaces beneath the head thereof extending from the web of the rail upwardly and outwardly to elevations higher than the fishing surfaces of said comparable rail of practically equal cross sectional area, said new rail also having the top of its head disposed higher than the top of the head of the said comparable rail.

3. A new railway rail comprising a head, a web, and a base, the inner or gage side of the head being disposed nearer a vertical, longitudinal plane passing through the center of the web than the outer side of said head, the said inner and outer sides of said head being respectively disposed nearer to and farther from said plane, than the inner and the outer sides of the head of a comparable standard T-rail of practically the same cross sectional area, said new rail having continuously curved fishing surfaces beneath the head thereof extending from the web of the rail upwardly and outwardly to elevations higher than the fishing surfaces of the comparable rail, said new rail also having the top of its head disposed higher than the top of the head of the comparable rail, and said rail further having the inner and the outer edges of its base disposed respectively nearer to and farther from said center plane, than the inner and the outer edges of the comparable rail to provide a practically zero free bending axis.

HORACE L. LANSING. JAMES G. DELFOX. 

